Angel Row

Nottingham Street Tales

By Joseph Earp

Angel Row runs from the end of St James Street to the beginning of Mount Street. The name Angel Row comes from an Inn of that name that occupied the left half of the current Bell Inn.

Towards the end of the Plague (Bubonic) in Nottingham it was decided that a collection of buildings, between Long Row and Parliament Street, known as the condemned area, a set of narrow courts and alleyways, were the breeding ground for the disease, and they would have to be demolished.

Within this area was a very popular and busy inn called The Bell, whose landlord on hearing of not only the removal of his best customers but the demolition of his premises immediately contacted the Council and complained.

As recompense he was offered the building to the right of the Angel Inn and soon recovered his trade to a point were he had all but stolen all of the customers from the Angel Inn next door; whose landlord offered to sell out to him.

The present Bell Inn is still made up of two buildings and the current central doorway would have been the alley between the building giving access to the stables at the rear (now converted to a bar).

The pair of buildings have one roof, or should I say three, because over the years when it needed repair they put another one on top.

When the son of the Landlord of the Bell Inn married the Widow who was the Landlady of the Trent Bridge Inn he discovered a large field to the rear of the TBI, and being interested in a New game called Cricket he used the field for his team to practice on; this led to the establishment of The Trent Bridge Cricket Ground on that site.

Article by The New Nottingham Hidden History Team.

Original Research from Paul Nix.